Why? Because once in a while you find yourself staring blankly at 20 oversized potatoes in your kitchen and can't fathom why those bags from Costco have to be so darned huge. Always looking on the bright side, you then think that it is probably for the better because it forces you to get your creative juices flowing and expand your culinary horizons.

Not that potato soup is beyond my horizon, but seriously, I haven't made it until today. Monique scoured some recipes on Youtube and came up with some versions of baked potato soup (not that the potatoes were baked, but it featured sour cream, green onions and bacon, typical of baked potatoes), then I looked for some more written (i.e. no video available) versions and came across potato soup that starts with mirepoix (i.e. a trio of aromatics: onions, celery and carrots). We combined the best of both worlds and violà, we have a recipe! Our Fully Loaded Potato Soup!

First time's a charm? Yes, it is on this one. This potato soup was most suited to the chilly evening (single digits in C now) and just a teeny bowl was so comforting and warming to the belly. The onions, carrots and celery brought another layer of flavour that made it unnecessary to load up on the cheese and bacon (LOL, I can't believe I'm saying this! Strange, but true). And ... I ditched the traditional sour cream and used Greek yogurt instead. Another win!

Directions:
1. In a heavy bottomed stockpot, brown the bacon until 'almost' crisp, then place it on a paper lined plate or baking sheet to soak up excess oil.
2. Remove all but 1/4 cup of bacon oil, then add the onions, carrots and celery, cooking until they have softened. Keep stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan while you're at it.
3. Sprinkle the flour and whisk it in, it will start to get a bit thick.
4. Add the vegetable stock a little at a time if the roux is too hard to whisk.
5. When the flour has cooked through, add the rest of the broth, then the milk, whisking it in, making sure there are no visible lumps of flour.
6. Place the potatoes in the pan and let it come to a boil on medium heat until it softens. To check whether the potatoes are cooked, poke it with a fork.

7. When done, grab your immersion blender and, very carefully, smooth it out to your desired consistency. Too thick for you? Add some broth or milk at this point, then bring to boil again.
8. Stir in the cheddar cheese, yogurt, and green onions, then season to taste.
9. Pour into bowls, and top with more cheese, yogurt, green onions, and those bacon bits you reserved.

There is this constant dilemma of what dessert to make for an Indian meal. And while I fancy gulab jamun, kaju burfi or the ocassional jalebi, we can only manage a petite bite of this sugar-laden treat before being turned off completely. So the need for a miniscule amount to satisfy this once or twice in a year craving doesn't justify making them.

Now what? Enter Persian cuisine and its similar spices ... cardamom, coriander, cumin ... also... saffron, rose buds, pistachios. And this combination on a cake screams ... Pick me! Pick me! And so I did ... much to the delight of my family members and some friends I shared it with.

This cake is so moist with the olive oil and milk, yet has texture from the cornmeal and the layer of pistachios on the bottom. But the best part of it is the honey saffron syrup that seeps into the cake delivering a subtle aromatic flavour. Layer on layer of saffron. Hey ... I don't bake this everyday. Or every year for that matter. So once in a while ... live a little better :)

This recipe is from WSJ where it was adapted from a recipe by Elizabeth Quijada from Abraço Espresso and Bakery in NYC. I adapted it again to make a tall-ish cake to fit my floral silicone cake mold and of course, decreased the sugar to allow for the syrup.

Directions:
1. Make the syrup: In a small saucepan on low heat, stir all ingredients together until sugar dissolves. Set aside.

2. Place the warm milk and saffron threads in a glass measuring cup to bring out maximum aroma and flavour from the saffron.

3. Grease a 9 inch cake pan with butter or olive oil then line the bottom with parchment paper.
4. Preheat the oven to 350F.

5. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda and baking powder and salt.
6. Make a well in the center, then add the eggs, milk and saffron, and olive oil.
7. With a sturdy whisk, mix the wet ingredients in the center together while slowly bringing in the dry ingredients into it, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

8. Pour batter into prepared cake pan and sprinkle the top with chopped pistachios.
9. Bake for 45-50 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

10. Set on a cooling rack and let cool slightly before drenching it with that aromatic honey-saffron syrup.
11. Let it come to room temperature before inverting it into your cake platter.
12. Decorate with more chopped pistachios and maybe some dried rose buds.

Keema, or kheemo, as we know it, is a minced meat dish that is typical of Sindhi cuisine. Growing up in a migrant community back home, it seems, keeps not only traditions, but cuisines alive as well. I fondly recall having keemo in my grandmother's place, where my aunts would prepare it, along with chicken seyal and biryani. Keemo would be the most popular among the young ones simply because one did not have to navigate through the bones of drumsticks and fish, one simply wolfed it down in copious amounts. I'm talking about my brothers and numerous male cousins.

Fast forward 20 years or so, it remains the most requested Indian dish at home. When mom in law comes to visit us, she would call my kids beforehand to take 'requests', and guess what? Keemo it was! Savoured with bhuga chawal or chappati and some yogurt on the side, it was the epitome of comfort food, Sindhi style. Oh yes, we ate with our fingers! Except the yogurt, that is!

Usually made with minced goat meat, most keemo is now made with chicken in the Sindhi households. The list of ingredients look really menacing, but if you often cook with Indian spices, you'll have most of them already. I just had to buy the meat and the tomatoes for this one, actually. Love how the oil gets infused with the aromatics before the cooking starts. This is what fueling with flavour is all about ;)

Here, the recipe calls for an all meat mince. However, I usually substitute half of the meat for minced vegetables (zucchini and carrots), as you may notice in the picture. Then again, you could go all vegetarian on this. Mushrooms and eggplant are wonderful for their meaty and umami flavours.

Directions:
1. Heat a glug of oil in a pressure cooker, and when warm, add the aromatics: cardamoms, cinnamon, cloves and bay leaves until it sizzles.
2. Add chilies and onions and sweat until the onions turn golden brown.
3. Then add the garlic and ginger and cook a further 3 minutes.
4. Now add the minced meat and turmeric, browning the meat.

5. Keep stirring now and then to break up the meat.
6. When the meat is cooked through, add the red chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and salt and mix well.
7. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook a further 3 minutes.
8. Add the yogurt and a cup of water, mix well.

9. Over the pressure cooker, bring up to pressure, lower the heat to medium low and cook for 10 minutes.
10. When it depressurizes, carefully remove the lid, stir and add the fresh green peas.
11. If you prefer more gravy, add a cup of water or yogurt.
12. Now add the garam masala, stir again, then top with coriander leaves before serving.

It's the first week of November and we are most definitely not out of the pumpkin patch yet. On a day trip to Bellingham last week, we tasted some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. It was so good! Soft, moist, flavorful without being overly pumpkin-y and best of all, it had chocolate chips. Joy and I looked at each other and we thought ... 'Yes'! And so here I am, a few days later with this recipe.

I usually prefer my cookies crispy, like English style biscuits, with which I grew up. Flashback to 20+ years ago having digestives and shortbreads with tea or chai with the elders. Never ever did I think of baking my own biscuits way back then. Come to think of it, never made my own chai as well. Yikes! Well, that was then and this is now. And boy, am I paying for all those years I never set foot in the kitchen.

Back to the cookies at hand ... I was saying ... I usually like them crispy, but this time, soft is nice. Soft is almost melting in your mouth. Soft is comforting. And we didn't stop with the chocolate bits, we added Chipits Skor Toffee bits for some butterscotch, caramel-y goodness. And we enjoyed them warm, fresh out of the oven, with a glass of cold milk.

Here's the recipe for 60 medium (means two 'lady-like' bites) sized cookies. Why so many? Well, I didn't know what to do with rest of the pumpkin purée can once I opened it. Sure, I could make pancakes and waffles and muffins, but then I've got 3 other cans waiting for that ;) If you've got chocolate chips, just go ahead and use them. I've stopped buying them because of all that 'extra' stuff you don't need. So if I ever want to bake cookies with chocolate 'chips', I just chop up some fabulous dark chocolate, and you know I'll always have that in my house.

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and pumpkin spice. Set this aside.
2. In a bowl of a stand mixer, beat the melted butter with the sugars until homogenous.
3. To this, add the vanilla, pumpkin puree and egg yolks, mixing it in on low speed.
4. Fold in the flour, in two additions, then the chocolate chunks and toffee bits.
5. Cover, and refrigerate for an hour.
6. Scoop into parchment lined baking sheets while preheating the oven to 350F.
7. Bake for 12-14 minutes until golden and just slightly darkened on the bottoms.

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About me

Growing up in a multicultural family, we have always enjoyed a wide array of cuisines. That's why you will find here a taste of the Indian, with special emphasis on Sindhi cuisine; a taste of the Indonesian, especially the Manadonese dishes, and surely, the universal Chinese dishes.